A seaside house gets a thorough update without ever losing sight of a storied past.

Preserving Dignity

Preserving Dignity

For designer Michael S. Smith, approaching the renovation of a an imposing 1918 Baronial manse on a sweeping expanse of ocean dunes in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, might have been as enticing as it was fraught. How to preserve the house's dignity and elegance in a raucous modern world—and still make it livable?

Grand not Grandiose

Grand not Grandiose

Architect Mott Schmidt understood this back in the day. A world war had shaken continents to their core, and building costs had doubled. Life as even high society knew it had been profoundly altered, as were their ideas of home. While creating townhouses for Vanderbilts and Astors, Schmidt also set about transforming the idea of the American country house with designs that were relatively less opulent and more efficient than their Gilded Age predecessors. Schmidt's houses were grand but not grandiose.